Alouette, Gentille Alouette! - Nancy, France
Nancy, France
"Alouette, gentille alouette, alouette je te plumerai , je te plumerai la tête!"
It's 5am in Paris, France and Lina, Harlea and I are singing this typical children's song as we're packing our bags to head out to the metro station, Gare de L'est.
The night before, we went to sleep relatively late, as we all obtained access to wifi and wanted to talk to our loved ones and post pictures from our adventures. That night, we also showered, so waking up at 5am was easier than we thought it would be.
Jean served us coffee (I preferred hot chocolate) and we hurriedly walked from the 18th ward to the station. This time around, it wasn't too difficult to carry all our suitcases down the road, although at one point a giant truck full of beef and pork was being unloaded in front of a butcher shop and we couldn't get around it.
The first day we arrived, we looked for escalators since it was easy to take our bags on it. This morning, though, we couldn't find any and we were in a hurry!! We had to take the suitcases down two flights of stairs. Luckily, I only had one suitcase, but it was heavy, so when it was going down the stairs, it sounded like shots were being fired. haha. I just wanted to get to the ground floor and not worry about lugging that suitcase. Jean helped Lina and Harlea, since they had two suitcases each and were having more trouble with them.
In the metro station, there are giant signs hanging from the ceiling that say when the next metro is set to arrive. As soon as all four of us got to the ground floor, the time on the sign hit 0:00 and the metro quickly arrived. The doors opened and we hurriedly gave Jean two kisses and immediately boarded. It was the quickest and shortest goodbye. We miss him so much!
We arrived at Gare de L'est at around 6:30am and our TGV (that's Train a Grande Vitesse - high speed train) was set to leave at 7:00am, so we had plenty of time. We were so exhausted, that we sat at a nearby Starbucks and caught our breaths. I bought a croissant and a bottle of water since we hadn't had breakfast. The TGV is divided in different cars; Harlea was in car 13, Lina was in 15 and I was in 17. I wasn't too fond of being separated, but we had to follow what our tickets dictated!
We each said goodbye to one another, and then I walked alone to my assigned car. I asked the conductor where I could put my luggage and he motioned me to a space near the door and also said I could put it in my overhead bin. I walked down the aisle looking for my seat, seat 47. When I found it, I saw a man sitting in it and I double checked to make sure I was reading my ticket correctly. Yes, it said, seat 47, window seat.
So, with the little French I seem to know, I said, "Pardon, je suis a place 47." - 'Excuse me, I'm in seat 47 (or at least that's what I hope that translated to!" He looked up and said, "you mean, seat 44 (but in French?)" and I said, "Non, quarante-sept, 47" and showed him my ticket. I knew he didn't want to give up the window seat, but I had paid for it! He was nice enough to help me put my suitcase in the overhead bin though, and then he sat down next to me to watch Django on his laptop.
It was a cloudy, rainy morning, so as soon as I got situated, I grabbed my UCF throw and before I knew it, I was asleep. All I remember was putting on Michael Buble to play on my iPad and waking up to the TGV slowing down. Apparently the TGVs travel at over 200mph; you can feel the velocity until you're coming to a stop!
My first train ride was extremely comfortable and short (only one hour and a half)! As soon as I left my car, I saw Lina and Harlea waiting outside for me. I can always count on them.
Globe and Co is the international student organization at the ICN Business School that focuses on helping us international students with integration and just guidance for living in France. Emily, one of the Globe and Co members picked us up at the station and walked us to our apartment complex, Residence Pythagore.
Nancy, France is absolutely gorgeous!!! It's a small city right out of a story book! Almost like what Paris is presented like in Beauty and the Beast! The town center is huge! And the residents seem to be so nice. It does rain a lot though, so I am happy I brought an umbrella, as the cheapest one we've seen has been over 10 Euros.
We arrived at Pythagore completely out of breath. Emily helped each of us check into our individual studios and ensured that all appliances and furniture were working properly. Harlea and I are both in building C, but Lina is in building D. I don't have access to an elevator but am right down stairs from Harlea and have a perfect view of the garden!
Emily helped us will all paperwork that needed to be done and told us that we had an appointment with the bank, BNP Paribas at 3pm in order to open our bank accounts. Thomas, another student from UCF has been here since September (he's studying abroad for a full year), took us to the grocery store, Carrefour, since we had no groceries at all. We didn't know that we had to purchase bags, so he gave us a few that we could use.
Grocery shopping in France is absolutely an adventure. We recognized no brands at all. It was so hilarious trying to find the ham we like, the cheese, the yogurt, the soups, and so many other things. In France, milk is not sold refrigerated, and we spent a few couple of minutes looking for the milk in the refrigerated section. I found a large container that appeared to be milk, but it turned out to be plain, liquid yogurt. When I found the large bottles of water, that's when I ran into the milk, "lait." I laughed at myself and quickly told Lina and Harlea, as we were all craving hearty milk with chocolate, as Jean had served us every morning while in Paris.
I grabbed a plate, a cup and a bowl and headed over to check out. Harlea went first, then Lina, and then I followed. The cashier marked the items so quickly, that I learned we have to ask for the bags before she's done registering everything, so we have time to bag our items, pay, and leave. We held up the line quite a bit... but at least we got groceries!!
Although Thomas walked us over here, we had to find our way back, and this is how we remember to get home: "take a right after you leave Carrefour, cross the street, keep walking straight until you see a wood building, take a right and then keep walking until you see Pythagore." Seems simple enough, right?! Wait until you read my next blog and we'll see about that simplicity... haha.
We set down our groceries, turned on our heaters and waited for our 3 o'clock appointment.